What You Sign On For (Luke 3:15-17, 21-22) By Rev. Peter HeinrichsSunday, January 13, 2019

A subject that interests me very much came up at the first meeting of our Confirmation Class a week or so ago. The question was: What is Confirmation? Now there is a simple answer to this question, and then, of course, a more complicated answer. The simple answer is that Confirmation completes a process begun in Baptism. Because in our Congregational Protestant tradition most of us – not all, most of us, were baptized as infants or small children, and certain promises were made for us by parents and/or godparents. Some other traditions wait until a young person is capable of making those Baptismal promises for him or herself, often during the teenage years. That is called a Believer’s Baptism. In our square of the theological grid, Confirmation completes the process begun in Baptism as a young person explores what it means personally to accept the promises once made long ago by others. Or, to say it another way, Confirmation confirms that the life-long journey of faith now belongs to the Confirmand.

That’s the simple answer. Life, however, is seldom so simple.

Now here is what caught my attention last week. I don’t think we’re at all sure in this congregation what Baptism is or why it might be important. Let me see if I can demonstrate what I mean. Let’s do a simple survey right now, right here. NO judgment involved. Let me ask a couple simple questions. Please raise your hand if the question is true for you. No pressure; just curious.

How many of us here were ever baptized? As children? Teenagers? Adults?

How many have not been baptized?

Is anyone not sure?

How many of those baptized actually remember being baptized – I’m not talking about seeing a photograph, reel-to-reel tape or video, but having an actual memory of the event itself?

Of those baptized, how many were confirmed?

Of those not baptized, did any of you make your own choice not to do so for your own good reasons?

Now, let’s try a different question. Can anyone say in a sentence or two what Baptism means to you? NO judgment here. I’m just interested.

Thank you. My point is that the picture is, well, complicated. My wondering is why we might want our young people to be confirmed if we are not sure why baptism is important -- to us.

Here’s what I am getting at. I believe that Baptism is a bit more than a membership certificate into the Christian tribe. It is a way of stating that your identity does not come from the world that appears around us. When Jesus is touched by the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove at his own baptism at the river Jordan, and touched with God’s words You are my Beloved, his own identity is being named and recognized. He realizes that he is the Beloved. Nothing that the world can do can take away his identity as the Beloved. Everything the world sees in Jesus – his strength, his wisdom, his gentleness, his courage and persistence, his forgiveness, his ability to see into people’s soul – comes from his awareness as the Beloved.

Baptism is the sign that we believe that in Jesus we, too, are the Beloved. Our identity as Beloved is our ‘hard drive’ and everything else is just ‘apps’ and ‘programs’ that come and go as we do our work in the world. We see and experience life as everyone does – highs and lows, happiness and sadness, beauty and suffering – yet our awareness of it all comes from this other place. Every response we have to life – from shame to joy and everything in between – can be held with respect and honor – and without judgment -- once we accept what’s in our hard drive. We are the Beloved. Our identity therefore, comes not from the self-image we’ve taken on as a person with our stories and mixed bits of good and bad. Our identity comes from what but what we realize and remember inside.

Can you find this ‘Beloved’ place without Baptism? Of course you can. God’s ways are so far beyond ours. But the point is not that there are other paths. The point is to choose a path and make a commitment and practice what that path teaches you. Christian life has a path called Baptism. It is a beginning, not an ending. It is a practice rather than an idea. You will learn along the way to be less and less horrified at what the world can do and more and more amazed at what love can do. Is that not what you are here for?

Let me conclude for today with one more question. I have a thought that one day this Spring we might have a Baptism service. Perhaps some among us, younger or older, may wish to be baptized. Perhaps some among us, younger or older, may wish to reaffirm a baptism they cannot remember clearly. You don’t have to raise your hand. I’ll stay a bit after the service, right here in the sanctuary, and I invite you to let me know whether you’d like to be part of a group to explore what the baptism path means for you.

After all, it’s what we’re here for. Not the Baptism part – that’s only a sign and a signal. What we’re here for is to realize and remember who we really are. And to practice living from that place!